Wenatex Blog :: Healthy Sleep for a Better Life

How important the quality of a bed is has been demonstrated in a police incident in the town of Okaloosa, USA.

A couple having marital problems and contemplating divorce had a fight over who would sleep on the couch. The wife said her husband pushed her off the bed onto the floor, which started the fight over who should sleep on the couch. The husband had slept there the night before, but was refusing to sleep there a second time. After an investigation by the local Sheriff, the incident was closed.

This case illustrates the importance of a good night’s sleep and the influence of the mattress to achieve it.

Until next time

Be wise and have fun

Juan

For more information of how to improve the quality of your sleep please click here.

The Wenatex website has received a “mini face lift”. Not being directly involved with this latest “plastic surgery”, I can honestly and objectively say really that it is friendlier, more to the point, and easier to understand… and I know it will continue to evolve and improve.

On the right hand side of the homepage www.wenatex.com.au, you will find a video masterpiece (total running time 12 minutes) explaining a lot of what you need to know about sleep. It was aired on 60 Minutes in the USA. Don’t miss it… it is really excellent!

Here it is

Until next time,  be wise and have fun

Juan

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder

“There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more.”

Visit a Wenatex Sleep Seminar to learn more about Healthy Sleep… No jokes!

http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp

That is a great blog that you are doing, Juan. I also congratulate the graphic design team for their effort in making it look so visually attractive! That makes a big difference to the length of time that people spend on the site.

Very best,
Steve de Vroom

Although, the science of sleep strongly opposes reading in bed, I have to tell you, I need to read something to switch off my thinking and help me get off to sleep. I usually spend 20 minutes or so reading some pearls of wisdom, and this puts me to sleep like a baby with a big smile.

I would like to share with you one of my readings…I hope you will consider sharing some of your favourites as well.

The book I am currently reading is called Virtue and Happiness, The Manual of Epictetus. Previous to reading this, I did not know who this Greek gentlemen was… but… Oh la la… he is amazing! I will leave you with one of his beautiful writings:

Signs of someone who is progressing:

He blames no one,
He praises no one,
He complains of no one,
He accuses no one,
He never speaks of himself as of someone important or who knows something.

If you wish to learn about Sleep Tips, visit the Wenatex website or book for a FREE healthy sleep seminar.

Until tomorrow,  be wise and have fun!

Links: http://www.shambhala.com; http://www.wenatex.com.au/sleep_tips.asp

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder.

If you are anything like me you would have been shocked to hear the latest news that Australians are now THE fattest country amongst the world’s major economies, bulging past the Americans by 1%. More than one quarter of our population are now deemed to be obese, this is 4 million Australians! Add to this a further 5.4 million who are overweight. Therefore 62% of our population are now overweight or obese! This is one scary statistic!

There are so many contributing factors to our bulging bellies. We can blame it on cheaper prices of fast foods, the rising costs of healthy foods and gym memberships, our fast paced society leaving us with no time for exercise, or poor quality sleep. Whatever excuse you may use, the bottom line is that we are to blame and it is time that we get serious about our health and the huge impact this is having on our society as a whole.

What steps will you be taking to either reduce your waistline or ensure you don’t add to our ever growing overweight/obese population?

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder.

Kitty B Yancey from USA Today reported that the “pillow menu” is the “latest thing” offered by some hotels in the United States. These hotels are promoting healthy sleep with a view to reducing snoring in their guests.

The general manager of Kimpton[1] Hotels’ 70 Park Avenue Hotel in New York had the idea to create a pillow menu after he found an anti-snore pillow in a store.

Now others are expanding on the idea, for example, the Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts[2] in North America offer a “Sleep Advantage” program, developed by sleep experts. Guests get a free kit with earplugs and eye mask, calming lavender mist, a CD that lulls them to dreamland — even a clip to hold drapes closed, shutting out light. They also offer “quiet zone” floors.

… and the trend is starting to catch on in Australia with some of the larger hotel chains jumping on the bandwagon and offering healthy sleep options.

I would be interested to hear about your experiences with any hotel chains in Australia offering this service. Did it add to your experience? Did you get a better night’s sleep?

You don’t have to go to an expensive hotel chain to experience a good night’s sleep, you can achieve a healthy sleep environment at home. To learn more, I strongly recommend you to attend to one of Wenatex’s free healthy sleep seminars.

Please click to fill out this form to register.

Until tomorrow, be wise and have fun!

More than half of the elderly population complain about experiencing sleep problems. Most do not seek a solution but those who do tend to use sleeping tablets, which have many side effects.

A study that is soon to be published in the scientific publication Sleep[1] reports the results of an amazing study performed at the UCLA[2] on 112 healthy adults ranging in age from 59 to 86, where the effects of Tai Chi exercises against health education classes that included advice on stress management, diet and sleep habits, were tested. The group that practiced Tai Chi showed not only a better quality of sleep and remission of clinical problems related with sleep disturbances, but also reduced drowsiness and increased capacity to concentrate. This short-term study is extremely important, not only because of its positive results, but also for the overall positive health improvements that can be achieved by a long term practice of Tai Chi.

I would be very interested to know if anyone has experienced a reduction in health problems by practicing Tai Chi or Qi Gong. Send me your comments.

Be wise and have fun

Juan

1 http://www.journalsleep.org/
2 http://www.ucla.edu/

How is it you can learn the tango in the evening and be able to remember it the next morning? When did your brain create this memory? Was it during the lesson? Shortly after it? During the night?

The when and how of memory creation in human brains has been the subject of scientific debate for centuries. Today, the question of how the brain stores or discards memories still remains largely unexplained. However, Nobel Prize winner Bert Sakmann from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg  and his colleagues demonstrated that those fresh impressions, the tango steps for example, are first stored as short-term memories in an area of the brain called the hippocampus. They are then said to move within hours or a few days - usually during deep sleep - into the cerebral cortex where they enter long-term memory.

This explains why people who have experienced sleep disturbances during the night who perform tasks requiring memory, do not perform as well as those who enjoyed a healthy and continuous sleep.

Can anyone share some personal experience in relation to memory creation?

Be wise and have fun

References:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1991/
http://wbp.mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de/
http://www.physorg.com/news84535821.html

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This article is for information only. For health advice specific to you, please consult your Health Professional.